Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Authorities say four men have been charged in the death of a senior marketing major at Mississippi State University in Starkville Sunday.

Joseph Tillman, from the Delta town of Schlater, was found dead early Sunday. Oktibbeha County Coroner Michael Hunt told WTVA's Craig Ford that the body was in the yard of some apartments on Maxwell Street when an ambulance was called around 2:30 a.m.

Jaylen M. Barker, 20, has been charged with murder with a bond of $1,000,000. Jamario Pippins, 22; Tyler Harris, 16; and 19-year-old Brandon Sherrod were charged with murder as an accessory, each with a bond of $500,000. All four suspects are from the area, police said in a release Sunday. All were transported to the Oktibbeha County Jail and have initial Municipal Court appearances set for 6 p.m. Monday.

Authorities said the incident was related to an attempted robbery. When they stopped the four suspects, weapons were found in the vehicle.Facebook friends identify Tillman as a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Schlater is in the rural area between Greenwood and Ruleville.Sid Salter, chief communication officer at MSU, released the following statementvia Twitter.“The MSU family is shocked and grieving over the loss of our fine student, senior marketing major Joseph Tillman of Schlater. We are grateful to local law enforcement for their swift action in this case and are fully cooperating with their investigation. Counseling services are available for MSU students who need that service. We have no other relevant information to share at this time.”Salter said Student Affairs had been in contact with the Starkville Police Department since early Sunday."We have obviously a very deep interest in it and will cooperate with every agency involved," Salter said. "To our knowledge (Tillman) wasn't doing anything amiss. It seems to be a real tragic case of wrong place, wrong time. It was really a shock. It was a really happy afternoon in Starkville and on campus with the game, and this was something we weren't expecting.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation crime scene unit was called to process the scene. The US Marshals Task Force, the Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office and the Mississippi State Police Department are also assisting.

The Reflector reports that the MSU Student Association released a brief statement as well. “The student body is grieving over the loss of one of our own students, senior marketing major Joseph Tillman,” it read.

"The Starkville Police Department would like to extend our prayers and condolences to the Tillman family and the Mississippi State students who were affected by this loss. The Starkville Police Department will not tolerate violence of this nature in our community and will ensure that justice is served," the department said in Sunday's release.

Hunt has not yet returned calls and messages from The Clarion-Ledger seeking comment.

Keep these in mind as you contemplate the direction of the American government over the past 50 years and especially since the Obama election.

The Goals of Communism

(as read into the congressional record January 10, 1963, from "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen)

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.